(some) Mobile Apps not installing (Auto install or Self Service) (for some clients)

I have seen this happen when I accidentally forgot one minor step.

Under the Managed Distribution did you select Assign Content Purchased in Volume ?

I know it is a novice oversight, but soe times the simple solution is the easiest.

That is selected.
Vast majority of the devices do get the applications. We have a small number that don't and since we are on house arrest it's fairly difficult to swap a device for a user and it potentially creates a health hazard.

Someone suggested upping the number of free licenses and I have more than plenty left (used the -<5000 instant purchase method).

I did call Apple support and their suggestion is while on the phone with Apple go through the commands to install / push install apps and upload the sysdiagnose log to be reviewed by their engineering team. I'm looking for other ideas in the meantime.

The VPP token is good for another 5 months or so.

Here is another "simple" question. The devices can handle App? What I mean by that, the devices are not too old and can't run a new 64bit app.

FWIW, seeing the exact same thing on our end with newly-enrolled devices within the past few days. Most apps install without issue, but a handful just refuse to install, with "Pending - Application is not available to install". I've opened a support case as well, so will report back with any updates.

these iPad devices are 5th or 6th gen. The operating system ranges between iOS 12.x or iPadOS 13.x and I think the majority are on iPadOS.

Seeing the exact same thing in our environment. These iPads meet all the criteria listed above with OS ranges, the app is 64 bit, updated inventory, enough VPP licenses and assigned as Managed - pending-Application is not available to install. Opening support case as well.

@jgarland Have you tried excluding the user or device from the app scope? Try that and do an inventory update & blank push once removed just to clear the air Then add them back to the scope and see what the net result is.

Seeing the same thing here.

Updated an affected iPad from 13.3 to the current OS, also removed all the restriction profiles.
Apps still won't install.

If you removed the restrictions profiles then I suggest you look on the App Store of that iPad. Search for the app and see what status it has i.e. Get, Installing, etc.

@mainelysteve Good advice, but at least in my case, I'm not even in the same country as the iPads that are generating the error. Excellent advice for troubleshooting if you can physically get to the device though.

Launched the App Store and searched for one of the apps that are not installing. It shows "Get" while I am not logged in the the app store.

Yep. Without a decent remote control solution you're pretty much left telling the user to create a backup followed by erase all content and settings.

I've had multiple cases of this in the past year. Sometimes little fixes work but most of the time it's the sledgehammer approach.

Our devices have restrictions where we do not allow them to sync to computes. Devices need to be on prem to authenticate login to enroll.

I am having the same issue with the Netflix app right now. It says 'Pending - Application is not available to install'. JAMF said to talk to Apple. Apple said to talk to Netflix. Nothing from anyone. This app used to work as I can see where it pushed down about a week ago but it was a different version of the app. It appears to have updated to a new version as of late. Wonder if it is a version issue.

@canopimp For you does the app not install at all? Do you run into problems with other apps?

Vast majority of the mobile clients receive apps, and small subset do not receive any apps or not receive some.

It's difficult to gauge this as everyone is on lockdown / home and we don't conference with students (teachers do).

UPDATE: Appears Netflix removed the ability to do 'Device Assignable' app deployments.

Apple got back to me and they say it's not an Apple issue and I need to talk to Jamf.

Apple wants me to nuke affected device and re-enroll and deploy apps.

I encountered exactly the same issue on a specific Air 2 device out of more than 400 iPads of students at home because of lockdown. The iPad is ASM enrolled so I can ask the student for erasing all contents and settings and hoping that automatic deployment works. Did you ask remote iPad user for just erasing all settings? I will do that before nuking the remote device.

Hi,

I came across this last year, I've seen it on MacOS and iOS App Store Apps through Managed Distribution (Formerly DEP), boosting the server capacity, (Cores and RAM) helped initially and it seemed to go away completely for a while once I transitioned to Jamfcloud, but it comes back sporadically.

We did additional testing like Corporate WiFi vs Home vs Hot-Spots - No difference.

When I do a batch of iPads in a trolley with a MacBook, Content Caching and Internet Sharing I don't recall Apps failing to install.

For us it was subsets of Apps that would consistently fail to install not subsets of devices so maybe a subtle difference but I think it's most likely an APNS issue which is why the below seems to work.

Usually, I go to the App page in JAMF, click Edit, click Save and the App starts to install, the other way is to let users know their Apps are in Self-Service, I have all my Auto-Install apps in one category called Auto-Install so it's really easy for users to find.

Another way to do it is to make a search group of devices missing a particular App (Criteria is Scoped to Smart Group or PreStage that should have App auto installed AND "App name" "Does not Have" "[AppName]" and do Actions/Remote Command/Cancel All Management Commands. Or to go into the device and Cancel all Management Commands.

A side effect of this apparent APNS bug is that far more of my users now know about and love Self-Service.

Are you using Sites? Most problems I had with VPP or ASM was due to the need to have the whole chain (ASM/VPP account, app entry, devices) on the same Site, otherwise the devices are out of scope.

In Apple School Manager I have two sites.
One is used by one purchasing account for majority of the apps.
One is used by one purchasing account for Special Ed team.

In Jamf I am not using sites.

I do use Departments but that's a LDAP lookup to a grade level.

Are you suggesting to use a search like this:

Department IS Grade 1
or ( Department IS Grade 2, or Department IS Grade 3) and App name DOES NOT HAVE Zoom

I am having the same issue. I went to a students house and picked up the device and have a call with JAMF scheduled for today. I'll let you know the outcome.

Just a "Me too" note - have a handful of iPads (30 or so out of almost 3000) that just will not install MS Teams no matter what I've tried (remotely as we're also not in the office these days, and the iPads are at home rather than the schools). Have created a smart group of devices and tried the "cancel commands" and get a new inventory. I see the command to install the app go out but nothing on their end. Definitely an intermittent but persistent problem here.

We have this issue on iPads not signed in with the student MAID account. I don't have admin access to JAMF so I am not sure what our settings our. As long as they are signed in, correctly, no problem. We want them to be signed in this way so it isn't an issue for us.